Cleaning pad for cleaning robot
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing cleaning pads for autonomous robots often lead to debris hot spots and increased adhesion to the floor, requiring abrasive layers and additional torque for movement, which can result in scratching and inefficiencies in debris collection.
Innovation Solution
A cleaning pad with varying thickness across its width, where the forward portion is thinner than the aft portion, allowing for even debris distribution and reduced adhesion, eliminating the need for abrasive layers and enhancing debris collection efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a cleaning pad has constant thickness, then it provides uniform contact with the floor surface, but it causes debris hot spots where debris excessively accumulates and creates adhesion to the floor
Solution Approach 1:
The cleaning pad employs varying thickness across its surface, with the forward portion being thinner than the aft portion. This local variation in thickness creates different contact pressures and airflow characteristics at different locations, preventing debris from excessively accumulating in specific areas and reducing adhesion to the floor surface.
2Ease of manufacture
If a cleaning pad has constant thickness, then it maintains simple manufacturing, but it pushes fluid and debris across the floor surface creating piles of accumulated debris
Solution Approach 1:
The pad features a non-uniform thickness profile where the forward portion is thinner than the aft portion. This design allows the pad to collect debris effectively without pushing it across the floor surface, as the varying thickness creates appropriate pressure distribution and airflow patterns that draw debris into the pad rather than allowing it to accumulate in piles on the floor.
3Area of stationary object
If a cleaning pad has constant thickness, then it provides consistent contact area, but it requires abrasive layers to prevent adhesion and increases torque required for movement
Solution Approach 1:
The cleaning pad utilizes varying thickness across its surface, with the forward portion being thinner than the aft portion. This design reduces the overall contact area with the floor surface compared to a constant thickness pad, thereby reducing adhesion forces and the torque required for movement without requiring abrasive layers.
Solution Approach 2:
The pad design changes the thickness parameter across its surface, creating a gradient from thinner forward portion to thicker aft portion. This parameter variation reduces adhesion to the floor surface by limiting contact area while maintaining effective debris collection, thereby reducing the force and torque required for movement.
4Quantity of substance
If a cleaning pad has constant thickness, then it provides uniform absorbency, but it creates forward to aft wetting pattern and reduces overall debris collection capacity
Solution Approach 1:
The pad employs varying thickness across its surface, with the aft portion being thicker than the forward portion. This local variation in thickness provides additional absorbent capacity in the aft portion where debris accumulates, while the thinner forward portion allows for proper airflow and prevents excessive wetting, thereby increasing overall debris collection capacity.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention addresses the limited debris collection capacity of constant thickness pads by introducing thickness variation as an additional design dimension. The aft portion is made thicker to provide additional absorbent layers and increase capacity, while the forward portion remains thinner to maintain proper airflow characteristics, creating a three-dimensional thickness profile that optimizes both capacity and performance.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The pad effectively collects debris without leaving piles on the floor, reduces the need for abrasive layers, and decreases the torque required for movement, promoting even wetting and efficient debris removal.
Implementation Method 1
a core of absorbent layers for absorbing liquid through capillary action and for distributing the liquid within a cleaning pad
Implementation Method 2
a wrap layer around the core, the wrap layer comprising a fibrous layer that is flexible and absorbent, the fibrous layer configured to absorb liquid through capillary action and transfer the liquid to the core
Data Source
AI summary
A cleaning pad for an autonomous cleaning robot evenly wets and collects debris for cleaning operations. The pad includes a core of absorbent layers for absorbing liquid through capillary action and for distributing the liquid within the cleaning pad. The pad includes a wrap layer around the core, the wrap layer comprising a fibrous layer that is flexible and absorbent, the fibrous layer configured to absorb liquid through capillary action and transfer the liquid to the core. The pad includes one or more transition regions spanning a cleaning width of the cleaning pad, the one or more transition regions dividing the cleaning pad into at least two segments. The forward positioned segment of the pad, of the at least two segments of the pad, has a lesser thickness compared to a thickness of an aft positioned segment of the at least two segments.